T-Mobile G2x review

LG hasn’t launched a high-end Android smartphone in the U.S. for some time now — sure, it shipped the Optimus on multiple carriers, and Verizon launched the Ally a few years back, but neither was capable of holding a candle to other first-rate devices. That all changes with the G2x however, which is no doubt LG’s answer to Samsung’s Galaxy S family of smartphones in the United States. Its spec sheet is enough to leave other phones shaking in their boots. Dual-core processor, 4G radio, 1080p video — it has all the trappings of a top-of-the-line handset. I have been using, abusing, and confusing the G2x for the past few days and am ready to levy judgement on LG’s first serious smartphone contender. Want to know if the T-Mobile G2x has what it takes to be your next high-end smartphone? Hit the jump to find out.

Hardware/Display

The G2x packs a serious hardware punch. It has a 4-inch touchscreen display with an 800 x 480-pixel resolution, 1GHz dual-core NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor, 8GB of internal storage, 512MB of RAM, 8-megapixel camera capable of recording 1080p HD video, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1, and HSPA+ radio. The display is bright and crisp, with great contrast and depth — I love how the glass feels like it tapers off at the edges. Colors really pop, and I didn’t have much issue viewing the screen under direct sunlight. I do wish LG included its NOVA AMOLED screen for added color and vibrancy, but the screen, by and large, does not disappoint. One of the device’s biggest strengths lies in its use of NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 chipset. The speedy silicon serves up a generous heaping of killer graphics, but I’ll dive more into that later.

The G2x feels excellent in the hand. It weighs in at 5 ounces, which is just heavy enough without being too light that it feels cheap. Despite offering a large 4-inch screen, the phone doesn’t feel too bulky or large, and it’s thin at 0.43-inches. I love the aesthetics, too; it’s rounded on all corners, and the rear cover has a beautiful copper-colored soft touch finish. There’s an 8-megapixel camera capable of recording 1080p HD video on the back of the phone, accompanied by a metal Google nameplate that adds to the first class look of the device. The front of the phone is also home to a 1.3-megapixel camera designed for video chat, and the HDMI-out port, 3.5mm headphone jack, and power button are all conveniently positioned on the top of the device.

Software

The G2x launched running Android 2.2.2 (Froyo), although LG and T-Mobile have both promised that Android 2.3 Gingerbread is coming in a future update. I won’t go too deep into the operating system — LG thankfully left out any sort of UI customizations — as many of you are likely familiar with the layout of Android 2.2. The capabilities of the dual-core processor are definitely noticeable while moving around the operating system, though. Everything flies and is executed nearly immediately. I never found myself waiting for apps to close and there is no annoying app-lag. This baby just flies and the stock UI means everything looks nice and clean.

The default Android keyboard worked well while pounding out emails and text messages, although I do prefer other custom QWERTY keyboards — such as those on the Motorola ATRIX 4G or HTC’s Android devices — but that’s purely a matter of taste, not something that should dissuade you from buying the device.

Even though the G2x is working with stock Android, there is a bit of bloatware installed. T-Mobile includes its own AppPack software, EA Games, a Highlight news app, and T-Mobile Mall. TeleNav GPS Navigator, T-Mobile TV, and Qik video chat, and NVIDIA’s Tegra Zone have also made their way on to the G2x.

Gaming

We don’t blame you if you’re not a hardware head, especially since the game is constantly changing and new hardware is released all the time. However, as we mentioned before, the G2x comes with NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 processor… and that’s worth talking about. Not only is it a dual-core chip that is blazing fast at 1GHz, it’s also designed to run and render games better, and with more details. So much better, in fact, that NVIDIA has decided to launch its own Tegra Zone game store. It’s been in the Android Market for some time now, but the G2x is the first phone in the U.S. to ship with it pre-installed. There are currently nine titles available and NVIDIA told me it plans to fill out the store with many fresh titles over the next six months. I had a chance to get an early peek at some upcoming titles including Riptide GP, Pinball HD and Galaxy on Fire 2. The games were still unfinished, but there’s a lot to get excited about.

Riptide GP was my favorite of the bunch and totally took me back to my days playing Wave Race 64 on Nintendo 64 — only this time with much better graphics and in the palm of my hands. I’ve also seen an impressive demo of it running on an HDTV, although we weren’t able to test this aspect during our G2x review. Pinball HD was fun if you’re looking for some sharp graphics and a pinball machine on your phone, but I didn’t really see a ton of effects that would require a powerful processor. Galaxy on Fire 2’s effects were insane: I was cruising around firing my lasers, blowing up starships, and watching beautiful explosions without any drop in frame rates — everything looked beautiful and stunning. NVIDIA told me that it works with developers to allow for more detail in games running on Tegra 2 chips, and I’m definitely impressed with what I see so far. Each of these games should be launching in the coming weeks in NVIDIA’s Tegra Zone store.

Phone/Speaker

Test calls made on the G2x were crystal clear. It sounded like I was using a landline phone and I didn’t have any complaints from callers on the other end. I think my biggest gripe is the placement of the volume buttons. They could use some more travel and click, but perhaps that will happen after more usage. Either way, that’s not a deal-breaker.

The speakerphone was loud enough to clearly hear the callers on the other end of my calls. It also sounded pretty good when I started playing a few songs, although it did sound a bit sharp. I can’t think of any phone that sounds great playing music through its integrated loudspeaker, however, so this shouldn’t be a big deal either.

As with some of T-Mobile’s other smartphones, the G2x supports Wi-Fi calling. That means you can place calls over your Wi-Fi network if you’re in an area with poor T-Mobile coverage, but unfortunately it also still consumes your T-Mobile minutes. Multiple test calls over my home Wi-Fi network — which is known for its poor upload speeds — weren’t very good. Voices kept breaking up on the other end, even when I was calling landlines, and I generally found it unusable. As soon as I turned off Wi-Fi calling everything cleared right back up. I didn’t have any issues on other networks, however, so this isn’t a ding against the phone itself, but I haven’t seen this performance issue with T-Mobile’s Wi-Fi calling on my home network before. The moral of the story might just be that you’ll need pretty solid upload speeds in order to make use of this feature.

There’s also a 1.3-megapixel camera on the front of the G2x that can be used for video chats via a gamut of apps available in the Android Market. T-Mobile includes its own T-Mobile Video Chat software, powered by Qik, but don’t get too excited… I’ve found Qik’s video quality to typically be pretty terrible, and I kept getting connection errors on the G2x before calling it quits on the app. I recommend giving Fring a whirl if you’re planning to use the forward-facing camera.

Data

Support for T-Mobile’s HSPA+ “4G” network is offered on the G2x. In New York City, one of T-Mobile’s 4G networks, our average download speed was just shy of 3Mbps and our upload speeds typically hovered around 1.5Mbps — those speeds aren’t bad and are certainly faster than the HSPA+ speeds we’ve seen on AT&T’s “4G” HSPA+ phones. I had 4G signal almost of the time, but the G2x did drop back to 3G in some areas of Manhattan.

Battery Life

The LG G2x packs a 1,500 mAh battery that performed pretty well during my review period. I started using the G2x after a full charge at about noon and after heavy usage, including gaming, surfing the Web, watching some streaming television, checking Twitter and email, and placing phone calls, the phone began to give low battery alerts at 5:45 p.m. That’s about 6 hours of heavy usage, which isn’t that bad. Your mileage will improve with normal moderate or light usage, and should get through a regular day just fine — but I’d definitely pack my charger for any overnight trips. There is a check box to use only 2G data — as opposed to 3G and 4G — which can also help with battery life… if you don’t need high-speed cellular data, of course. Overall I found that the G2x has been one of the better performing Android smartphones when it comes to battery life.

Camera

As I noted earlier, the G2x packs an 8-megapixel camera with a single LED flash that’s capable of recording 1080p HD video. Pictures were crisp and were generally solid in good lighting conditions. I found that the single LED flash consistently blew out my subjects in dark situations, but at least it was good at lighting up a room. The auto-focus did take a second or two to lock onto a target, though, especially in less than ideal lighting.

1080p HD video, on the other hand, was impressive. I filmed cars driving by on the street below and noticed that I was able to clearly make out the street sign across the street after viewing it back on my computer. Some smartphones can struggle when panning while filming HD video, but that wasn’t the case with the G2x — I saw very little pixelation as I panned the camera around. Audio also came through well.

Wrap up

If you’re in the market for a new smartphone on T-Mobile, the G2x will blow your mind compared to its predecessors. At $199.99, it’s priced on a par with other high-end smartphones on T-Mobile, but it packs so much more power. The dual-core processor means this thing screams right out of the box, so you should be future-proofed against more powerful applications and games. Also, T-Mobile’s HSPA+ network offered some solid data speeds, and gaming was a ton of fun. The decent battery life, good call quality, and sharp 8-megapixel camera certainly don’t hurt either. Right now this is the créme de la créme of smartphones on T-Mobile USA.

Speaking from experience, I would stay away from cheap, Korean-made gear. They’re made to last about 10-12 months. Not good if you’re on a 2-year contract.

http://www.facebook.com/people/Simon-Yu/100000989859895 Simon Yu

Luckily this doesn’t feel cheap and doesn’t appear it either.

http://www.droiddoes.com/ Norm

It’s LG, therefore it’s cheap.

http://twitter.com/gamercore Christopher Chavez

Might wanna make a judgment after actually HOLDING the device in your hands…

Jr

LG’s tech is very good, it’s their execution is what is usually lacking. Over the last few years they are finally starting to understand that they aren’t the giants anymore and Sammy is starting to take a big chunk of business from them. LG is bigger than Sammy in Korea.

Anonymous

Lol. I have an optimus one. Its one of their early android phone. Its cheap but the materials used are great. Great quality. Thats why im going to upgrade to a g2x. Its definitely one of the best android devics. I think you should try g2x yourself before judging.

http://profiles.google.com/christopherjameslyssy Christopher Biff

i assume you typed this comment with your Iphone firmly implanted up your ass right?

Anonymous

Certainly. There’s an ass for that.

Ryan

Iphone’s made in Japan and china. Dumbass

Foxycokeburger

he didnt say it wasnt dumbass

Clay

All iPhones are made in China. Show me an iPhone made in Japan. You are full of B.S. Apple’s own supply chain flow chart shows this clearly. Now who’s the Dumbass.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000314962648 James Kelly

He didn’t say anything about where the iPhone is made, so shut it, dumbass.

concern citizen

Dumbass??? why? do you guys have a good product to sell? as if all u.s products are good! hello… wake up your country is going down .

http://twitter.com/parallelogram parallelogram

Speaking from experience, atleast they won’t be useless as a Phone (a device to make and recieve calls without dropping them) starting from the first day you buy it?

Anonymous

Seeing i won quite a few pieces of LG tech in my house and all been here much longer then 2 years i think it will be fine. Go troll some where else

http://www.facebook.com/brettmlewis Brett Lewis

My LG phones have lasted longer than any other phones I have owned.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000314962648 James Kelly

You are very ignorant.

http://twitter.com/homescrub homescrub

Nice. Now bring this to AT&T…lol

http://twitter.com/GuyverV GuyverV

it has at&t 3g bands as well

noemail@4spam.com

No it does NOT
T-Mobile LIED

Clay

The bands are there. It has nothing to do with T-Mobile. It is the FCC that approved this device with ALL OF THE BANDS. Did the FCC lie? The bands are just disabled until the merger goes through. Why would a company release a phone that will just automatically work on a competitors network. The deal isn’t through yet. The bands are there. Do some research.

Clay

The bands are there. It has nothing to do with T-Mobile. It is the FCC that approved this device with ALL OF THE BANDS. Did the FCC lie? The bands are just disabled until the merger goes through. Why would a company release a phone that will just automatically work on a competitors network. The deal isn’t through yet. The bands are there. Do some research.

http://twitter.com/ITMedCEO Derrick Ford

Wait til the merger… Oh, but you’ll loose 4g and 3g on AT&T’s network

Anonymous

Nice reviews

Jam

Surprise I didn’t hear it’s not from Apple so it can’t be good.

http://twitter.com/UrbanEnigma Yves

I’m skeptical of buying any HSPA+ phone on T-Mobile until the AT&T acquisition deal is it killed by the SEC

http://twitter.com/robsleezy Rob Sleezy

This device is the first of many to include the AT&T HSPA+ 850/1900 Bands as well. You’d be surprised, but the two companies are under the impression that the deal is done and are taking steps in that direction like this phone and a few other devices on their way to the market. Just look at the little things…

-A Busy Bee In Between The Blue and The Pink :)

http://twitter.com/ITMedCEO Derrick Ford

Actually, I see it as T-Mobile USA taking steps that the deal is not done! “Business as Usual” If the merger doesn’t fall through it’s 3 billion in the pocket.

Anonymous

probably a good approach, esp if you are in a metro area like NYC or SF where AT&T’s 3G (er, “3G”) network is all but unusable

Drew

I feel ya’ on that but this is a Quad-band HSPA radio in it that will work on both so you should be good. BGR tends to just skim over and half-ass things when it’s not Apple or RIM related. Kinda something that should’ve been mentioned in this “review”.

http://twitter.com/manozz Gundruk

These smartphones are making my Evo look outdated and weak. Oh well it had its days when 1GHz and 4.3″, 4G and kick stand were big deals.

Anonymous

Well your Evo is outdated. Are you moving up to the 3D?

http://www.facebook.com/matt.mingkee Matt Tsui

Wow!!! This sounds much better than I tried. However, the calling quality is the thing I concerned the most as some LG phones I have (OT, OV) don’t work well.
For $500 (off contract), I feel confident to buy the day it hits the corp store.
Hope I made a right choice as I will let go of my MT4, nexus one, NS, N900.

Larry Mao

Give LG some credit. From all reports I’ve heard, the Optimus line has performed very well. They are trying to break big time into Android, I doubt they would have shoddy internals on their flagship device. The G2X looks solid, if I wasn’t on contract with Verizon, I would have jumped ship to T-MO to get my hands on it.

Anonymous

I agree. They just need to focus more on their software. They should hire better software developers than what they have now,

Guest

Sounds great but I’m sticking with my iphone 3Gs it does all that I need it to do

RJ

How would you compare it to the other currently available high-end Android phones?(Atrix, Thunderbolt)

Xs11e

Your definition of “decent battery life” is about 18 hours shorter than mine!

Anonymous

Dual cores make for great battery life haven’t you heard? Seems not that great. My single core can get that battery life. My old iPhone4 could destroy that battery life

Anonymous

So a dual-core processor getting the same amount of usage time as a single-core processor isn’t notable? Interesting perspective.

Anonymous

No its not notable. They are supposed to be better.

Vzguest

@proof2006

Better? No. Look at the iPad2. it has dual core, but the battery is the same 10 hrs. Would you argue that iPad2 should have 20+ hrs just because it has dual core?

Anonymous

Really? What smartphone are you using that lets you go 24hrs between charges, assuming you do more than have it just sitting in your pocket with data turned off?

No snark; I’m genuinely curious.

Joe52985

My iPhone 4. Average about 28 hours between charges using it alot. Pandora is my car radio so it’s used constantly there. Angry birds is always being played. Pictures taken.

Anonymous

That is frankly amazing. I’d love to see battery life like that, but I guess I’m just not willing to give up the Android.

Anonymous

Man i sorry but i dont believe that you are using your phone ALOT and on 1 charge your phone last 28 hours. Actively emailing, browsering the web playing games, and general use thats impossible.

Anonymous

my VZW (work) blackberry lasts 2 to 3 days with moderate use, before I have to even consider charging it (it EASILY goes all weekend and usually Monday with no problems); with low use (i.e., just doing emails), it can go 5-6 days;

my personal iPhone (AT&T), if I take the train from NYC to Harrisburg (3.5 hour trip) and I leave NYC station at 100%, i usually arrive at Harrisburg around 30-40%, with NO use of iPhone whatsoever, but I think a lot of that drain is because there are so many dead spots along the route NYC -> Philly -> Hburg (no AT&T 3g or EDGE signal) that the phone sucks up juice searching for the signal; i usually now just put it in airplane mode and rely on the VZW blackberrry which of course has no dead spots whatsoever along the route (3G all the way);

Anonymous

Your phone lasts a full day during heavy use? Impressive.

Got a question for you. What’s the future like? Have we made first contact yet?

Anonymous

Your phone lasts a full day during heavy use? Impressive.

Got a question for you. What’s the future like? Have we made first contact yet?

Anonymous

Great download speed in NYC, well – at least until ATT swallows TMO and network performance deteriorates accordingly.

The FCC will not let this go through, it’s already being talked about that this has a slim chance in He!! of being approved. You will see TMO grow their infrastructure, roll out 42Mbs sooner and have more coverage, all thanks to ATT. And that is when the merger is rejected. hahaha

TMO=WINNER!

Scott

WAYYYY to much wasted space above and most notably, below the screen. Why is there so much space for the buttons? That’s the one thing I really do not like about this phone.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1190546822 Jay Sizzy

Damn I didn’t notice the space on the bottom. Now its bugging me out and I don’t like the way it looks =/

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=560795878 Kevin Passino

Far better phone than the Evo for the same price? Heck yeah!

http://twitter.com/RJay87 RJay Mirosovsky

i feel sorry for you americans, such slow data speeds. I am currently using an HTC Incredible S with sasktel and after may speed test the results fell around th 8mb/s dl speeds. every big network out here runs 21mb/s and some run 42mb/s

Joel

Tmobile is 21 Mbps and upgrading to 42

Verizon LTE is much faster than that, we don’t have slow speeds?

mrkeepon

But the G2x only supports up to 14.4Mbps unfortunately.

Joel

Ah I didn’t realize it was only 14.4 phone. Still our networks aren’t slow just the phones radio bands

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR6HpRLyzMY Walter Sobchak

Yeah, but your McDonald’s and Burger kings are not near as efficient as ours.

Guest

Does it come with Swype? If not, can Swype be installed?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR6HpRLyzMY Walter Sobchak

No, yes.

http://profiles.google.com/parabellum2000 j m

I wish this was available on Verizon.

Anyone know when the Bionic will be released?

serpentor

I can hit just over 5 down using a Galaxy Tab on tmo in NYC. Check that speed test again

Anonymous

i want my phone to be lighter than a feather. I know the difference between what feels cheap and what is cheap. I don’t need weight in my hands to tell me that. The Nexus S rocks for that. drop it on concrete 10x and tell me it doesn’t hold up better than heavier smartphones..

Anonymous

i want my phone to be lighter than a feather. I know the difference between what feels cheap and what is cheap. I don’t need weight in my hands to tell me that. The Nexus S rocks for that. drop it on concrete 10x and tell me it doesn’t hold up better than heavier smartphones..

Mrsmith14

I’d be interested to know more about this on the AT&T bands. This obviously supports them. Does that mean that the device will come unlocked, at least to be used on AT&T? Did AT&T de-HSUPA-ify this one on their bands or are all of bands capable of HSUPA?

Anonymous

The T-Mobile firmware on this beast does not cripple upload speeds like AT&T did with their recent Android device(s).

It is however SIM locked so if you get your hands on one you’ll have to get a friend from T-Mobile to get the unlock code or buy one online. You can find an online unlocking service pretty cheap nowadays.

I’ve been playing with this for about a day already. It’s super fast. I just happen to live in an area of SoCal that has fast 4G from T-Mobile all over the damn place too so that helps.

Remember that even on a fast wireless internet connection a slow processor can make any phone feel slower than it really is. This phone DOES NOT disappoint on this point.

So far my only gripe is that the speakerphone is not as loud and clear as I was hoping for. It’s decent but still a notch poorer than the Samsung Galaxy S 4G and 2 notches under what BlackBerry devices offer.

http://twitter.com/hijackerjack Rohil Thopu

Get me CM7 on this bitch and it’s all mine… well, if I were on T-Mobile and now VZW it would be mine haha.

Baltham

Cyanogen has announced support for this phone.

Anuldorf

wow 3mb download and 1.5mb upload at “4g” speeds… i get more than double that in Canada with 3g :S

http://www.facebook.com/people/Simon-Yu/100000989859895 Simon Yu

That’s probably on slow 4G, on my Cliq with 3G i get 3mbs down and 1mb up.

heyhey

and the android saga continues….

great hardware…terrible OS

Anonymous

Would have never touched Samsung or LG phone in 2009 but after owning Vibrant and looking at LG G2X, me spending 750+ on slate on 20th. No hesitation.